She and the small team are swamped with thousands of men within days of a battle, sometimes whilst being bombed and showered by flying shrapnel themselves.

While fighting off exhaustion and sickness, Lucy also faces challenges she would not have previously fathomed, including ghastly wounds inflicted by artillery, multiple limb losses and a severe lack of doctors.

Some of the men beg her to let them die, with pain so extreme and injuries so severe.

He is withdrawn and starts drinking heavily to help with night terrors and flashbacks.

Returning soldiers were more likely to get married than the general population, but their marriages ended in divorce at a much higher rate.

Research by the University of Melbourne in 2005 found there was also a rise in domestic violence.

A PhD thesis by Dr Elizabeth Nelson found some deserted husbands or boyfriends murdered their former partners, while stress disorders, frustration and other legacies like “shell shock” led to violent behaviours.

“The war contributed to both veterans’ and civilian men’s wife abuse by idealising male aggression and by provoking a range of experiences that personally disempowered men,” research by Dr Nelson found.

“Failure to enlist, failure to fight, and failure to cope with horrifying memories of battle were some of the ways in which men fell short of their own and society’s expectations of manliness.”

The research found that in Victoria there was also official leniency towards returned-soldier perpetrators, both during and after the war, and such leniency extended to civilian defendants post-war too.

Some women disempowered

Lucy returns from the war and feels pressure to marry a man 20 years older than her to secure her economic future.

Once married, Ashleigh and Lucy “do the right thing” and quit their jobs.

Upon their return to Australia, nurses of WWI did not receive the same post-service financial benefits as their soldier counterparts, nor did they receive any kind of recognition for their work.

Before the war in 1911, there were 21,500 more men than women aged between 20 and 29, but by 1921 that figure had flipped with 22,500 more women.

Associate Professor Crotty said there would be even fewer marriage prospects for women than the numbers suggest.

“Some men suffered from impotency, many from reduced wage-earning potential, and some were so screwed up they probably wouldn’t have been great fathers,” he said.

Harry’s rejection

This section contains the image of an Aboriginal veteran who has died.

James’ mate Harry tries to enlist in the war with him, but is knocked back because he is part Aboriginal.